From Every Nation…

Race seems to be on the minds of a lot of people around America today. From riots to shootings to immigration, our country is clearly struggling with issues of racism and the clash of different cultures.
That’s why one of the coolest sections of God’s Word is God’s description of heaven in Revelation 7:9-10. There, God allowed the apostle John to get a glimpse of heaven, and this is what he described: “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.'”

My sinful nature always looks for ways to make myself look better than other people. My sinful nature believes that my culture and my race and my way of doing things is better than that of other people. My sinful nature believes that God should love me and people like me more than people who are different from me. We need to be on the lookout for those thoughts in ourselves!
Because salvation doesn’t come from me or my language or my skin color, it comes from the Lamb – Jesus Christ who died for every person of every race in the entire world. You aren’t special because of your skin color. You are special because God loves you and Jesus died for you. When we get to heaven, we will rejoice to see millions of brothers and sisters in Jesus, who might look different than we do, but who share the same faith in Jesus. The more diverse our country and our communities become, the more we get a tiny picture of what it will look like in heaven!